Aloha wau iā ʻoe, Moana
by LadyAkuma20
Summary: More than ten years after the events of the film, Moana is on death's door. With regret and other deep-rooted feelings coming back to the surface, Maui returns to save Moana from death. *Please Note: Moana is an ADULT in this story and is about 26 years old or more. Also, no, I do not ship the minor x adult Moana x Maui. I ship the pair ONLY as consenting adults *


****AUTHOR'S NOTE: I want to clarify a few things. (After a recent guest review that apparently misread something)**

 **Moana is not 16 in this story. She is in her late 20s. It has been 10 years since the film, so she is at least 26, if not older, since no age was specifically given. There IS, granted, a large age gap between thousands of years old versus 26, but she is not a minor (I don't write minor paired with adult fanfics) and, being an adult in this story, the story is no different than those pairing another god-like aged person, aka Loki, Thor, Odin, Beetlejuice, etc, with another mortal. Also, I only ship this pair as adults, and only because I saw the movie and saw a bond that would last beyond the years, beyond any distance, that would be difficult to break.**

 **Thanks for understanding! I didn't want there to be any more misunderstandings!****

The great hawk flew through the sky as fast as it could.

He had heard, through the whispers in the wind, that little Moana, who should be in her 20s by this point, since he hadn't had a chance to check in as much in a couple of years, was deathly ill.

He was hundreds of years old… and the one human he had truly connected with in all of his years on the planet was leaving him all alone. He felt guilty. He should have been there more, and checked in on her more, instead he had been travelling the islands, exploring and seeing new lands. And she had gotten sick while he was off.

He had one way to save her, but if he didn't make it in time…she'd be gone, and not even the heart of Te'Fiti would be able to bring her back.

As he arrived on the new island they had settled on, which is what had made finding her so difficult, he shifted out of his hawk form and landed on his feet, startling the islanders around him.

"Where is she? Where's Moana?" he asked, as a young man walked up and hung his head down.

"You must be the great Maui… Chief Moana speaks very highly of you…"

"Chief Moana? What happened to her father?" Maui asked in surprise.

The young man dipped his head in sadness. "He fell suddenly ill as well… the same as Moana. We believe that someone has poisoned them. Her father passed about 5 months ago."

Anger covered Maui's face. "Who did it?"

"We do not know. Someone poisoned the fruit they had at a meal… The chief sickened gradually, then passed. Moana began falling ill soon after. I can take you to her…"

Maui simply nodded, and clutched the shell of liquid he had attached to his hip. If he made it in time, things would be ok.

They moved quickly through the grass and the trees, until they reached a large hut. The young man stood aside, as did the guard at the door, allowing him to enter.

His eyes widened at the sight of her.

Her skin was pale and sunken in, where you could tell she had not eaten or drank in a while. Her hair was stringy, and had come out in clumps. Her frame had thinned out. She was not the Moana who had traveled with him more than 10 years ago…

He slowly walked up to her bed, where her mother sat, wiping sweat from her brow, and he sat beside her. She had gotten taller, that much could be told despite the poison.

"Who are you?" her mother asked him, and he gave her a small, but sad smile.

"A friend."

Moana's eyes opened up slightly, and she was able him. "M-aui?" she croaked out, surprised, but weak. He winced at how bad she sounded, but he was able to smile. She was alive, so there was hope.

"Moana… I heard you were sick…"

She let out a hoarser, angrier cough. "Hardly… I've been poisoned. And believe me, I had his head." Her mother patted her hand at that, and looked at Maui.

"We caught a former suitor trying to finish the job. He confessed, after his capture, that he was desperate for the claim of Chief. He thought he could woo Moana and her father into giving Moana to him, but when he was rebuffed, he grew angry, and sought vengeance. He was sentenced to death for his crimes."

Maui's face grew angry, but as he pulled out the shell from its resting place on his hip, his face grew soft. He turned to Moana, and lifted her head. "Drink this. The ocean gave it to me, and told me to take it to Te'Fiti. She blessed it, as did the other Gods. It will heal you."

He lifted the shell to her lips, and she drank as much as she could, before coughing. He gently propped her up, to clear the liquid from her lungs, and picked her weak body up. Her mother stood up quickly, alarmed.

"She is weak, you can't take her anywhere!"

"I have to get her to the water. Te'Fiti was very specific, she has to be taken to the ocean." He said, as he headed for the door and pushed it open, pushing past the guards at the door. He looked down to Moana. "Do you trust me?"

She smiled at him, even in her weak state. "Always."

As they tried to stop him, he pushed them aside, before taking off in a sprint towards the shore. He tore through the trees, putting a large distance between himself and the people of her village.

After a 30 minute sprint that left him tired, he reached the opposite end of the island. It would take the villagers a long time to find him. He carried her to the edge of the ocean, then walked into the ocean with her in his arms. The sky was growing dusky, as the sun fell, welcoming the night sky and the moon.

With a glance up, he glanced down, noting the depth at the drop off in the water here, where it suddenly went deep. Trusting in Te'Fiti, he took a breath, kissed her forehead, then released her into the ocean, where the water took her deep under the waves. He watched every tendril of her hair as it disappeared, and he looked down, saddened. He thought that he would have made it, but, she had sunken to the ocean floor, and was taken by the darkness that was the sea.

Maui, dejected, trudged back up to the shore and sat in the sand. He wiped a few tears from his face that he'd had no idea had fallen, and he simply stared at the moon. Hours passed, and the sky went from a deep purple to a dark, inky black, peppered with little stars. Maui stood, looking down, then turned to leave.

"Aloha, Moana… A hiki kakou hui hou…"

As he walked off, he heard the ocean begin to churn. Turning, he saw a blue-green light that was in the shape of a manta ray floating in a large circle. As he moved to inspect the strange creature, the water shot up like a cyclone, and he guarded himself with his arm. Grabbing his hook off of his hip, he prepared to fight whatever monster was coming for him at his weakest moment.

He was not prepared to see Moana, her body restored, her eyes glowing a pale blue, in the middle of the cyclone.

His jaw dropped, and she lowered until she was standing on the back of the ray. The cyclone fell away, turning into a mist, and she rode the back of the ray to the shore, her eyes shining in the light. As she reached the shore, Maui took a careful step towards her.

"Moana?"

Her eyes returned to their usual color, and she smiled. "Maui!" She took off towards him in a sprint, and, with fresh tears in his eyes, he laughed as he opened up his arms to her. Moana threw herself in Maui's arms, pressing her face into his chest as he wrapped his arms around her tightly.

"I thought you were gone…" he said, as she nodded.

"For a bit, I think I was. I was so weak, and I drifted off when we were running. I woke up on an island. I saw the Gods, they said that they wanted to save me, and make me more than I was. Like you. They gave me the power to control the ocean. And then they sent me back here."

He stopped at that, and held her tighter. For a time, he had lost her. She had died, or come far too close to it. He looked down at her, and took in her healthy features for the first time. She had truly become a woman. Her hips were full, her height risen a few more inches. Her hair came to her legs now, and her lips were full and rosy.

"I was scared I'd lose you." Maui said, as she smiled, then swatted his arm.

"Well if you came around more often… when's the last time I saw you? 10 years ago? Were you busy or something?" she asked him, half teasing. He shook his head, looking regretful.

"No, but I should have come. I'm so sorry I wasn't here for you Moana. It won't happen again. You literally mean everything to me." he said, to her surprise. She looked at him in surprise, and nodded. She had never taken a husband, because something had felt off. Even with the most persistent suitor, a young man from the village named M'ake. He had pushed her father into forcing her hand, and when he had refused, he had tried to force Moana himself. That hadn't ended well, and Moana had cracked him in the head with an oar when he had tried to force himself on her. She hadn't seen much of him since then.

"I never took a husband." She said, as he looked down in surprise. That had come out of nowhere. "I mean, there were people who asked, but it never felt right. Then I realized that I had found my husband already, but he was gone."

He stared at her, wondering if she could possibly mean that she felt as he did.

"We've always been friends Maui. I've always had you even when you weren't there physically. I always knew that you would come if something happened to me. My people don't need me. My mother gave birth to a son after I returned home, he is old enough to lead now, with my mother's help. I miss traveling, I need to be out in the ocean. And we could come back whenever we wanted. Please… let me be with y-" she didn't finish her statement, because he pressed his lips to hers at that.

They stood there under the moonlight for a while like that, until she pulled away and pressed her hands to his face, smiling.

Content, she grinned. "Aloha wau iā ʻoe, Maui." She said, as he smiled.

"Aloha wau iā ʻoe, Moana."

*Translations:

A hiki kakou hui hou – Until we meet again.

Aloha wau iā ʻoe – I love you


End file.
